“I was . . . busy,” Nephthys explained without telling them anything.
Amun-Ra frowned and stepped forward, offering his arm to Nephthys. “We’re still happy to see you here,” he said, more to her than to Seth. “Perhaps you would consider helping me start the dancing, Nephthys?”
“What a wonderful idea,” Seth said with sneer. “Since we missed the feast, the least my new wife and I can do is to celebrate the marriage of the gods with a dance. Shall we, my dear?”
Nephthys bit her lip as Amun-Ra raised his hand and the music suddenly came to a stop. “What did you say?” Amun-Ra asked. “I fear I misheard you.”
Seth leaned forward. “You didn’t. Nephthys and I have been recently married.”
“You what?” Isis approached and grabbed her sister’s arm, pulling her away. “Is he telling the truth?” she demanded.
“He is,” Nephthys said. “We were wed just an hour ago.”
Isis gaped in shock, stepping back and letting go as if she’d become infected with whatever it was that had possessed her sister.
Amun-Ra took her place and had no such hesitation about touching Nephthys. Almost tenderly, he took hold of her shoulder. “Were you coerced?” he asked softly.
Nephthys’s eyes gleamed with unshed tears as she looked up into Amun-Ra’s face. “No,” she answered. “When he asked me, I agreed.” Stepping closer, she whispered so that only Amun-Ra could hear, “My light will bring him balance.”
Amun-Ra studied her carefully. “Do you love him, then?” he asked, and everyone waited with bated breath to hear her reply.
But before she could answer, Seth stepped between them. “Of course she does. And if you’re thinking of dissolving our union, you’d first have to undo whatever it is the two of them have done,” he said, pointing to Isis and Osiris. “But I’ll remind you that just this morning you said as long as there was no”—he waved his hand distractedly—“procreating going on, such a union was acceptable.”
Amun-Ra took a step back. “Yes . . .,” he agreed slowly. “That I did.”
“Then you don’t see a reason that the two of us can’t be married?”
Folding his arms across his broad chest, Amun-Ra answered, “If Nephthys entered this . . . arrangement of her own free will and choice, then I won’t protest it.”
“Good,” Seth said with a cheeky smirk. “Then I’d say we should get on with the party. Shall we dance, wife?”
Nephthys shot Amun-Ra an indiscernible look, then nodded and followed her new husband to the dance floor. The stunned musicians hurried to resume their interrupted song. Despite the fact that Nephthys had planned the festivities with excruciating attention to detail, none of those involved felt much like celebrating any longer. Osiris drew Isis aside and whispered in her ear while Seth twirled Nephthys to the music that now sounded jarring and shrill to Isis, despite the fact that they were the most talented musical group Osiris had ever found. Amun-Ra quickly made his excuses and left, an ember of regret in his eyes.
The party continued, but the only one who seemed happy was Seth, who accepted the halfhearted congratulations of those in attendance with relish.
When a few of the citizens of Heliopolis apologized profusely for bringing a gift only for Isis and Osiris and not for him and his new bride, he laughed away their concerns as if such a thing was of no importance. Nephthys bobbed her head in agreement and joined her sister as Isis unwrapped her gifts, trying to make up for the fact that she’d done the unthinkable on her sister’s wedding day.
Standing by her sister’s side, she read the notes from well-wishers and exclaimed over gifts as if nothing amiss was going on. Seth disappeared for a time and Isis tried to smile, but her eyes kept darting over to her sister. What was she thinking? How could she have married Seth! She kept waiting for a chance to draw her sister aside and tell her what she knew of her new husband, but before she could, Seth entered the hall again. This time he was with a dozen servants bearing a beautiful box of gold.
“What is this?” Nephthys asked Seth as her husband approached.
“It’s my gift for the happy couple. A little token to show them exactly what they mean to me.”
“How . . . lovely,” Nephthys said as she pasted a grin on her face.
Isis hadn’t missed the line that had appeared between her sister’s arched brows. She didn’t know what was going on, but if there was one person in the world she trusted as much as she did her new husband, it was her sister. At least, she thought she could still trust her. “Nephthys?” Isis said, the question in her mind not needing to be voiced.
Nephthys gave a small nod, so Isis let out a breath and took hold of her husband’s arm. “Thank you for thinking of us,” she said to Seth stiffly.
“Not at all,” he replied with a crocodile leer. “I wanted to gift you with something that shows my absolute regard.”
The heavy box was set down before Osiris, and he waved a hand indicating that Osiris should open it. The lid creaked as they did so, and Seth could not withhold the delight on his face as he watched their reactions.
Osiris frowned. “What is this?” he asked, stooping to examine the contents.
Seth practically cackled in glee. “Don’t you recognize it?”
“Sand?” Isis said.
“Not at all,” Seth answered. “You see, I’ve brought you your favorite spot in all the cosmos. And what’s more, I wrapped it all up in a neat little package.” In a stage whisper he murmured, “Think of it as a souvenir from the place you were planning to go on your honeymoon.” Sighing, Seth shook his head. “I see the two of you need me to spell it out. This”—he indicated, sweeping his hand through the grains—“is your beloved forest.”
“What?” Osiris asked in disbelief. “How can this be?”
“Isis knows. Don’t you, Isis?”
Her face paled and she swallowed before speaking. “You unmade an entire forest?”
“Not just a forest, the forest. The one he spends all his time in,” he said, jerking his thumb at Osiris. “Clearly the two of you should have talked more before marrying. I find it truly shocking that you don’t know his most treasured places.”
“You unmade it?” Osiris asked again, understanding and horror filling him.
The love he held for the place was akin to Isis’s love for Baniti; she could feel the pain of it reverberating through him. As she turned to her husband to offer him what comfort she could, she heard Seth say, “That’s not all I’ll unmake.”
Osiris sank to his knees and slowly dipped his fingers into the box, scooping up a handful of sand, letting the granules trickle through his fingers. It took several seconds for him to realize that his fingertips were also dissolving. He looked up at Seth. “What have you done?” he demanded.